FULL METAL JACKET (1987)
Region Code: Region-Free (UHD), A (Blu-ray)
Rating: R
Duration: 116 Minutes
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD MA, DTS-HD MA 1.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles.
Video: 2160p UHD Widescreen, 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lee Ermey, Dorian Harewood, Arliss Howard, Kevyn Major Howard, Ed O'Ross
When I first saw Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket I was only a kid in middle-school and it was a bit of an eye-opener for me, I'd been watching the Korean EWar set TV series M*A*S*H for years but this was a full-fledged war film on a whole other visceral level, like nothing I had yet been exposed to. It's a film with two distinct halves, the first parts focusing on a group of young men whom have enlisted into the Marines, their heads are shaven and then they are summarily broken down during their boot camp training, to be re-built from the ground up as proper U.S. Marine Corp. killing machines. One of these young men should't be there to begin with, the troubled Pvt. Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio, Men In Black), who is not only a bit overweight but glaringly mentally unstable from the get-go. It does not help that he is an easy target for screamer Gunnery Sgt. Hartman (R. Lee Ermey, The Frighteners) who regularly humiliates Pyle as much as he can. Hartman sees Pyle as a bit of a lost cause and eventually tasks Pvt. 'Joker' (Mathew Modine, Stranger Things) with babysitting Pyle, making him his pet project.
Through Joker's mentoring Pyle begins to improve improves and earns compliments of the Gunnery Sgt., but the mental deterioration was already there from the beginning, Pyle is now a certified killing machine and he inevitably explodes in a spectacular and unhinged fit of violence. This first bit is not without it's humor, we get the usual training course montages, marching formations chorused by inappropriate boot camp songs, and of course the dehumanizing treatment of the soldiers by the incessant spittle-flinging screams of Gunnery Sgt. Hartman, a role iconically inhabited by R. Lee Ermey, as a drill sergeant who is not adverse to slapping and punching the recruits when they crack wise or fail to perform to his standards, it's pretty brutal stuff. This is absolutely the war film that made me quite certain from a young age that I didn't want to be a soldier, and it's also the film that probably gave me the respect for our men and women in uniform, too. The performance from D'Onofrio as the cracked-soldier looms so large in my memory, so much so that I often forgot that there is a second half of this film, but as I get older it's this continuing story that affects me the most. D'Onofrio's character sort of mirrors that of Nicholson's Jack Torrance from The Shining, he was Section 8 from the get-go, the outcome was inevitable, and when his twisted spring gets sprung in the latrine of the barracks D'Onofrio more than passingly resembles Nicholson's character.
The second half of the film follows Private Joker (Modine) post boot camp to Da Nang, South Vietnam where he is a war correspondent for Stars and Stripes magazine. Following the events of the Tet Offensive he is moved further along the front lines where he is assigned to a squad that reunites with his boot camp buddy Cowboy (Arliss Howard, Tequila Sunrise). While patrolling the city of Huế the commander of the squad is killed by a booby-trapped stuffed animal, and Cowboy is left in command. Later the squad make their way through the fiery war-torn ruins of the city to clean-up any straggler combatants that are in the area, but after becoming lost they come under fire from a well-placed sniper that horrifically wounds several men in the squadron, causing chaos and confusion as the group struggle to save their injured comrades. The sniper using the shot-up soldiers as bait to lure the squadron to their deaths, shooting them full of holes while the soldiers argue among themselves as to how to proceed.
Full Metal Jacket is still one of the most potent war-films I have ever watched, at that point in my life and even still now it lingers with me, a horrific but darkly humorous examination of the horrors of war and how men that are stripped bare of the humanity to become killing machines once unleashed into war sometimes commit horrific acts, see awful things, and lose their way.
Audio/Video: Full Metal Jacket arrives on 4K Ultra HD with a brand new 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative performed at Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging with the participation of Kubrick’s former personal assistant Leon Vitali. Warner Bros. have been doing fantastic work bringing Kubrick's catalog to UHD, having knocked it out of the park with 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining already, and and they continue the trend with Full Metal Jacket. As a grain lover I was pleased to see a natural looking layer of film grain throughout the presentation, and it naturally appears grainier during the darker scenes, but always naturally so, it has a very filmic patina. The first half of the film is a bit drab looking by design as it shows us the dehumanizing boot camp training, there are a lot of green, browns and grays throughout, there are not a lot of vibrant colors to get excited about. Where the transfer shoines here is in the improved details with plenty of skin pores and clothing textures coming through, and having R. Lee Ermy screaming at you in 4K UHD is quite a sight. The latter half of the film is warmer with more color by way of fiery explosions, plumes of smoke from crumbling war-torn cityscapes lit by raging fires, and of course some splashy blood by way of gruesome high-caliber gunshot wounds. The HDR10 kicks-in with punchier colors and deeper blacks, giving the war-torn nightmare's final sprint of the finish a wonderful look. All the screen caps in this review are from the Blu-ray as I have not yet upgraded my disc-drive to 4K UHD on the PC.
We do not get a new Dolby Atmos mix for the film, but we do get the English DTS-HD MA 5.1 that accompanied the previous Blu-ray with optional English subtitles. As before it sounds quite good, the gun-fire and sounds of a war zone have some solid placement in the surrounds, and the score which is chock full of 60's rock n' roll from the Rolling Stones, The Trashmen and Nancy Sinatra sounds terrific. That's not all though, for the theatrical purist we get the original mono mix of the film which has not been on disc since the original DVD version of the film if I am not mistaken, it certainly was not on the previous Blu-ray editions, so that is pretty cool.
There are new extras I am sad to report but we do get the archival audio commentary by Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey and Critic/Screenwriter Jay Cocks, which is a mixed bag. It's one of those commentaries where all the participants are recorded separately and stitched together, so there's no chemistry or any chance of a conversation, but its got some cool insights from each of the participants about the making of the film and what it was like working with Kubrick.
Also carried over is the half-hour making of retrospective with actors R. Lee Eremy, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kevyn Major Howard, and Adam Baldwin, plus assistant art director Nigel Phelps, former Warner Bros. exec John Calley, author David Hughes, screenwriter Jay Cocks, and filmmakers Peter Hyamns and Ernest Dickerson. It's a solid and well-rounded retrospective, plus the 2-minute trailer for the film. It should also be noted that the accompanying Blu-ray on this set is not the new scan of the film in 1080p, but it is the same disc as the last Blu-ray release.
The two-disc release arrives in a dual-hubbed black keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring a new illustration, that I didn't quite love but it's just alright.The discs themselves do not feature any artwork, inside there's a digital redemption code for a 4K copy of the film.
Special Features:
- Commentary by Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, Dorian Hazewood, Lee Ermey and Critic/Screenwriter Jay Cocks
- Featurette Full Metal Jacket: Between Good and Evil (31 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
- Commentary by Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, Dorian Hazewood, Lee Ermey and Critic/Screenwriter Jay Cocks
- Featurette Full Metal Jacket: Between Good and Evil (31 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
Warner Bros. again maintain their usual high standards for another Kubrick classic on 4K UHD, the film itself is absolutely fantastic and it only gets better with age. This is well-worth an upgrade for the UHD enabled, however, if you're not yet set-up for 4K UHD there is no reason to upgrade at this point if you already own the previous Blu-ray, as it's the exact same disc and transfer. I am of the opinion that WB should always include a 1080p version of the new scans with these combo release in my opinion, their missing out on a potential sale, but otherwise this is a must-own slice of cinema history on UHD.
